by Jamie Craig
“I am sorry about that.” Jasmine approached him, and the hand she put on his back was almost friendly.
Darren smiled. “No, you don’t understand. I’m getting blood everywhere. Including you.”
“I know, and I said I only wanted to stop you…”
“You can explain that to Aden when he finds you.” Darren slammed his head forward with enough power to knock her on her ass. As soon as she lost her footing, Darren took off again, feeling oddly rejuvenated, as though all he’d needed was a short rest.
But now he knew exactly where he was going. He had heard a crash and a howl that could only be Aden. He ran toward that sound, tracking the wolf with the same inerrant determination he had for the hunt.
* * * *
As soon as he lost his grip on the tree, Aden did the only thing he could. He snatched at the foot that hit him and caught the man’s ankle.
Ray’s scream followed Aden’s howl as they both plummeted to the ground. For all his added powers, he’d already had one fall from a great height that night. It was probably why he’d gone for a strategic move in hiding in the tree rather than a full-on assault. But Aden didn’t care about playing nice anymore. Ray had attacked him in his home. He’d tried to set Aden up. It was time to pay for every mistake he’d made.
Aden started the shift back into wolf seconds before hitting the earth. Bones stretched, and muscles tore. It cushioned his landing, his leaner mass twisting at the last moment so it was more like dropping to his feet than landing on his head.
It still hurt like a son of a bitch, though. White-hot pain shot through his shoulder, making him see stars those first few seconds.
Ray landed far less gracefully. The rich scent of fresh blood filled the air, igniting Aden’s lust, and a long bone distinctly cracked. Aden thought it was probably a leg or an arm. Femurs and ulnas had their own unique sounds when they broke, like thick twigs snapping in a forest. They usually meant victory, because crippled prey was far easier to catch. It might not be as challenging, but at that moment, challenging was the last thing Aden was thinking about.
He sprang immediately. Ray tried to roll out of the way, but his injuries slowed him down. Aden landed on his legs and promptly threw his weight into Ray’s back to pin him down.
His paw slipped in blood. Ray hadn’t only broken bones when he fell; he’d scraped the hell out of his side. Rather than slow Aden down, though, it fueled his fury even more. He snapped at the fingers trying to scramble for a grip on the ground, effectively catching two of them at the knuckle.
With one yank of his jaws, Aden tore the fingers off the hand.
If Aden had been in human form, Ray’s bloodcurdling scream would have made him smile.
* * * *
Darren skidded to a halt as the two figures came into view. He didn’t even care if Jasmine stopped right behind him. He was pretty sure the sight before them would still her hand if she was armed with another knife. Two shapes that could have been twigs, but Darren knew without a doubt were fingers, were on the ground, and blood gushed from the fresh stumps on Ray’s hand.
Aden didn’t look like he intended to stop at Ray’s fingers. He was just an oil-black shadow against the pale moonlight, deceptively silent. Darren recognized that silence. It was the calm right before an attack—the silence that happened after the final warning. Every instinct screamed at Darren to reach for his gun, to stop Aden before things could go further. But he stood, frozen, as Aden jumped toward his prey.
Frozen moonlight caught the gleam of glistening fangs. Then, even that disappeared as they sank into pliant flesh, Aden’s powerful jaw locked around Ray’s shoulder. He had clearly been going for the death blow at the back of the neck, but at the last moment, Ray had twisted, and now he was pinned by Aden’s bulk, melting into the ground in a thrash of limbs as Aden overwhelmed him. His unmaimed hand balled into a fist and pounded at Aden’s heavy muscles.
On the second strike, Aden broke away with a howl of pain. Before he started to roll on the ground, as if putting out a fire, Darren caught glitters of silver in the black fur.
Darren wasn’t so enraptured by the fight that he didn’t hear Jasmine’s approach. He dragged his attention from Aden, and resisted the strong impulse to rush to the wolf’s side. The best way to help Aden was by stopping Jasmine from joining the fray. She was fearless enough to jump right into the center of it and plunge a knife in Aden’s throat.
He spun on his heel and raced toward Jasmine. His fist connected with her midsection, and he winced as she doubled over and groaned. He brought his knee up into her face with more force than he wanted to use.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ray try to make a run for it. Aden’s enraged snarl brought goose bumps to Darren’s exposed skin, but he only caught a glimpse of Aden’s leap onto Ray’s back before Jasmine swept his feet out from under him.
Darren rolled over and aimed for her ribs, distracting her long enough for him to pin her to the ground. He didn’t weigh more than she did, and she was strong, but he still managed to keep her against the dirt.
“Stay down,” Darren hissed. Jasmine continued to struggle. He punched her in her bloody mouth and repeated his words. “If you don’t want Aden to kill you, stay down.”
“I’m not scared of him.”
Darren forced her to turn her head, pressing her cheek into the dirt. “What about now?”
Ray’s screams had become wet gurgles. Aden hadn’t killed him, not yet at least. One paw pinned the man’s head, while his powerful hind legs straddled Ray’s hips. His muzzle gleamed under the moonlight, and every time he tore a chunk out of Ray’s throat, blood splattered through the air. Whatever bites he was taking had to be shallow, though. Ray still had the capacity to wriggle like a worm on a hook, his feet flailing, his hands beating uselessly against Aden’s fur.
Smoke rose from Aden’s body with each blow, but Aden ignored whatever pain he was in. His attack only grew more fervent.
Darren put his mouth close to Jasmine’s ear. “You smell like my blood. It’s all over you now. If you move, he’s going to tear you apart.”
“What about you? You’re just as dead.”
Ray continued to squirm and scream, though both the movements and the sounds were becoming weaker by the second. Aden had a strong taste for blood now, and there was a good possibility Aden would turn on them both in his fury. But he trusted Aden—more than that, he needed to trust Aden, because he had nothing else to believe in.
“No, I’m not. And if you listen to me, he won’t eat you alive next.”
Screams settled into whimpers. Whimpers dropped to moans. Moans faded to silence, where the only sound was the wet suction of flesh being torn from sinew and bone.
When Ray stopped thrashing, Darren prayed he was dead. For his sake. Because Aden was still feasting, his body resting flush against the man’s. Every once in a while, his long tongue licked at the blood matting his muzzle, but it was several minutes before he lifted his head in surcease.
Slowly, he turned to gaze directly at Darren and Jasmine. The silver glow of his eyes matched that of the moonlight.
“Don’t move,” Darren said one more time before pushing himself to his feet. There was more than a lump of fear in his throat, because the wolf in front of him seemed much more animal than man. But he tried to talk as though everything was normal and he didn’t feel that heaviness in his chest. “Are you okay? Your back is burnt.”
Aden remained motionless as Darren approached, his focus still on Jasmine. Only when Darren was within a few feet did his gaze shift. It settled on Darren, forcing him to a halt. It was too late to run away. He was too close to do anything but wait. He didn’t even dare do anything as innocent as wet his lips.
Wait.
After several, heart pumping seconds, Aden eased off Ray’s inert form. He padded to Darren’s side, stopped, and sank to his belly, his chin resting on the ground.
Aden was only allowing Darren a chance to examine hi
s back, but the submissive position was like a fist to his sternum. After an entire night of experiencing sensations and reactions he didn’t understand, this was the most overwhelming.
“Okay. I’m going to check your back.” He lowered himself to his knees and the smell of burning flesh and fur was stronger. Darren gently pulled the fur back, exposing small glints of silver. Darren delicately picked the pieces out of Aden’s fur and flesh, building a small pile of silver slivers on the ground by his leg.
“Please don’t go after Jasmine,” Darren said in a low voice. “I don’t want her to be hurt right now.”
A low growl caused the muscles beneath his fingertips to vibrate. When Darren glanced up at his face, Aden still glared at her dark shadow in the distance.
“I know.” Aden’s skin was blistered and the sight made his stomach twist. “But she’s lying still like that because she’s scared of you. I think we can…make sure she leaves us alone from now on.”
Aden snorted. Blood that had yet to dry sprayed across the grass in front of him.
“I think I got all the silver.” He ran his fingers down Aden’s back, searching for sharp metal, and doing his best not to aggravate the burns. Without thinking, he leaned over and pressed his mouth to the back of Aden’s head. The fur tickled his nose. The contact was brief, and he just hoped Aden didn’t mind it. “Come on. If she doesn’t want to cooperate…well, I tried.”
He stood before Aden did and waited for him to rise. It was a slow, terrifying process to watch, one that highlighted every sinuous stretch of Aden’s muscles. When he was firmly on all four paws, Aden bent his head back and bayed at the moon. The sound echoed into the night, horrific and mournful all at the same time. Every hair stood up on the back of Darren’s neck, and he had to ball his hand into a fist in order to quell the instinct to strike out.
As the sound faded away, he took a step toward Jasmine, only to realize she was no longer there.
Aden tensed, like he intended to give chase, but Darren put a gentle hand on the top of his head. “Let her go. I think she’s going to think twice before she comes back here.”
Beneath his fingers, the texture of the fur changed. It took only seconds for Aden to shift back into human form, but they were still seconds too long.
“If you want to go, I’ll understand.” Shifting hadn’t rid the blood from Aden’s skin. It stained his face and smeared along his neck, nearly as livid as the burns down his back and side. “I give you my word I won’t go after her.”
“Go? You mean, go home and put this whole night very firmly behind me?”
The twist of Aden’s mouth was almost sad. “It’s one thing for an Argenti to say to hell with everything he knows for some fucking fantastic sex. It’s something else entirely to watch a lover rip someone else to shreds with his teeth. This is your out. I’m only going to offer it to you once.”
Darren felt like all the moisture had been sucked from his mouth and skin. Watching Aden tear another man apart was hard. Seeing the blood on his mouth and chest was almost repulsive. Almost. It should have been repulsive. But he wasn’t disgusted. And while he had never eaten a wolf alive, he had destroyed a fair number, including slicing one’s throat with enough force to almost decapitate him.
His hands weren’t clean.
“I don’t want an out.”
Aden’s soft exhalation was the only indication that he’d been holding his breath while he waited for Darren’s response. “Good. I would’ve been really pissed if you’d taken it.”
“Yeah, I would have expected that. Come on. Let’s get back to the house so I can help you with those burns.”
They fell into step, side by side, not touching, though he was far too aware of Aden’s nearness. “So…is it over with you and Argenti?” Aden asked quietly.
“Yes. Jasmine told me what this was all about. She wanted to make more agents like me, except better. Werewolf strength, speed, and senses. That’s what the ritual was about…and apparently, I was needed for the final ritual.” Darren frowned. “But there were two sets of chains, weren’t there? So I guess we were both needed for the final ritual. But the thing is…even if she didn’t want to use me in black magic, I could never support anything like that.”
“Which? Making monsters, or using one for the process?”
“Both. The whole reason Argenti exists is to protect humans from wolves who’ve crossed a line. Who is going to protect normal people when Argenti starts to cross lines? And I do believe that power corrupts. Even if Jasmine’s motives were entirely pure, it’d just be too easy, too tempting, to use that strength she bought at the price of ten lives.”
Aden simply nodded. Darren wasn’t entirely sure he really understood, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t protesting or attempting to sway Darren’s beliefs. By not saying a word, he reinforced his earlier declaration. It wasn’t just his pack who would offer Darren respect. Aden would, too. And did.
Chapter 8
When Darren returned to his small, efficiency apartment, he found a plain white envelope on the floor at the door. He didn’t need to open it to know what it said. He left it on the table and peeled the borrowed clothes from his body, dropping the garments behind him as he went to shower. After he showered, he changed to his own clothes, delighting in everything from the worn feel of the material to the smell of his preferred laundry detergent. He packed two large bags with clothes and essential items that he didn’t want to live without, including his favorite weapons, then made himself two hamburgers and a big pot of rice. He chased his meal with two beers, then put on his most comfortable pair of shoes. He ignored the white envelope until it was time to walk out the door again.
Darren,
You are guilty of fraternizing with the enemy. You know that this is considered traitorous. If you return to Argenti, you will be shot on sight. Should you begin killing with the werewolf, you will not be turned over to the authorities. You will be hunted like the animal you have become.
Jasmine
He folded the letter and put it in his pocket. Instead of slipping an envelope under his door, she could have been waiting for him in his bedroom, armed to the teeth and prepared to finish what she started at Aden’s. The importance of the note wasn’t in the words, but in the message. Argenti wouldn’t target him if he didn’t give them a reason to. Considering that he stopped Aden from killing her in the most painful and horrific way imaginable, he thought Jasmine would keep her word.
Aden had given him instructions to meet him at the bookstore. He had driven by it countless times, including once as recon for the Halloween mission, but he had never been inside. He didn’t quite know what to expect from a used bookstore run by one of the most powerful wolves in the city, but it wasn’t the merry little bell that chimed overhead. Or the clean and welcoming interior that smelled of old leather and coffee.
He certainly didn’t expect to find Aden standing behind the counter in a pair of thin-rimmed glasses, calmly talking to an older gentleman while delicately cradling a massive book like it was a child.
Aden glanced up when he entered, but after a brief nod, he returned to his conversation with his customer, his deep voice oddly soothing in the warm shop. It left Darren time to wander around and absorb the details. The books were meticulously arranged, and there wasn’t a speck of dust in sight. There was even a pair of young women tucked into a corner, poring over a worn copy of what looked like Sylvia Plath.
The bell chimed behind him. Before Darren had time to navigate back to the front, Aden appeared around the corner of the stacks, his hands tucked inside the pockets of his loose trousers.
“You’re early,” he said. “For some reason, I wasn’t expecting you until later.”
“I didn’t see any need to linger at my place. But I can keep myself occupied if you’re busy.”
“No, I’ve got time. Mr. Gilbert’s gone, and Hannah and Dani won’t be budging from that table until I kick them out.” Turning sideways, he nodded toward the ba
ck of the store, clearly intending for Darren to follow. “Come on. I’ll show you where to put your stuff.”
Darren fell in step behind him, feeling more than a little off-center. Aden seemed just as comfortable in the store as he had stalking through the reserve. And he was also super hot. He looked even better than he did in his Halloween costume, which Darren didn’t quite believe was technically possible.
“I got a note from Jasmine.”
“Oh?” A small frown pulled his brows together as he paused in pushing open a door. “She’s not trying to tell you everything was one big misunderstanding, is she?”
“No. I don’t think she’d be that shameless. Here.” He pressed the envelope into Aden’s palm. “It’s not exactly the friendliest letter in the world, but I think it means she’ll leave me alone.”
Aden scanned it over quickly, not saying a word. Darren couldn’t stop staring at the glasses and how Aden’s clear eyes looked brighter behind the lenses. He was undeniably gorgeous in them, but the question of whether the wolf was farsighted, too, fed Darren’s curiosity. He almost blurted the query out loud when Aden passed the envelope back.
“At least you know where we stand with her now.” He turned his back on Darren and led him up the stairs. “No offense, but you’re better off without her.”
“I thought she was a good friend. Right up until she tried to kill me.” His shoulder ached from the weight of the bags, and he couldn’t wait to set them down. “But I guess now that I’m officially unemployed, I can get accustomed to being your kept boy.”
Aden smiled back at him. “Who said you’re unemployed? I’m putting you to work. I can always use another set of eyes at estate sales.”
“I don’t know how much good I’ll be to you unless you need me to infiltrate estate sales and eliminate the competition.”
“Considering this business? You just might have to.”